Bizarre offers have limited appeal

What other idiotic item is there out there to be peddled and give sports- memorabilia collecting a bad name?

Maybe nothing, now that pieces of a pitcher have gone onto the market, if only briefly.

Nelson's bone chips were pulled by EBay a few days ago, after bidding reached $23,600, because the whole thing violated the online-auction firm's policy against selling body parts.

Still, it has reached the point where just about anything is for sale these days -- which lessens the shock value of whatever bizarre stuff comes up for auction.

When the three lima-bean-size bone fragments from Nelson, the Mariners' relief pitcher, were listed on EBay with the come-on description, "These are the real deal!! Now is your chance to own not only a piece of the game but a piece of player!!" the reaction from the collecting community was just a shrug.

Even before EBay pulled the plug.

Despite what many people might think, real collectors wouldn't be caught dead with this stuff.

Real collectors, by and large, are not nut cases.

They realize that Gonzo's gum and Nelson's chips are marketed primarily to generate publicity, and -- if the promotional material that goes along with them is to be believed -- to raise money for charitable causes.

Gabbert, who according to an Associated Press report was convicted of forgery in North Dakota in 1993 after he opened a bank account of major-league pitcher Aaron Sele, and was convicted of making counterfeit driver's licenses and possessing credit cards that were not in his name in Arizona in 1997, said he wasn't trying to scam anyone.

He said he wanted the check for the winning bidder on the Gonzo gum, which was advertised on his Web site, to be made out to Lakeside High School.

He added he never thought bidding would go so high ($10,000).

"What people don't get is this gum has no value as a collectible, none," he said. "It has no more value than a half-eaten piece of pizza in Gonzo's garbage."

When Nelson's bone chips moved onto EBay, Gabbert was amused, along with a large portion of the nation's press.

Some high-rollers, maybe, but not most collectors, who have to find ways to maintain their hobby when faced with ever-rising costs of cards, memorabilia and autographs.

They don't have $10,000 for a wad of used gum or $23,000 for three specks of human bone.

Nor do they need to have their pastime turned into a laughing matter.

But, by now, they're used to it.

THIS AND THAT: The first series of the Topps 206 baseball issue -- a throwback to 1910-era tobacco cards -- did so well that the cardmaker will release a second series in late July, with a suggested retail price of $4 per pack. . . . The latest entrant in the bobblehead-doll market: the Harlem Globetrotters, who are replicating six of their most famous players, including Goose Tatum and Marques Haynes, at $25 each. They are available online at www.harlemglobetrotters.com. . . . Upper Deck has signed a deal with reluctant autograph signer Mark McGwire, and will feature a limited number of cards signed by him in its series two baseball issue.